COMMENTS

 Professor David Crystal has written in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English language that When 300 million Indians speak a word in a certain way that will be the way to speak it. It is felt that by 2010 India will have the world’s largest number of English (Hinglish?) speakers. The TOI angle seems to high light the Dalit’s late awakening. In fact it is perhaps the late awakening of our politicians too. This breed of politicians is marked for extinction. 

• thumb_up 50 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

Two-three decades back we were over-proud of our languages which is inherantly linked to our culture and heritage and now we are under-proud of the same, we are ashamed to talk in local languages! Yes, knowing english makes easy for travel, communicating with the rest of the world and access to vast knowledge and many jobs. However ingoring our own language and heritage will build slavery/copy-cat attitudes. English is not really a must for advancement in science or economics or any other fields, there are ample global evidences for the same, we can look at most european, east asian countries where people hardly talk english yet they have achieved progress in every field. In fact, being proud of their heritage has made them uniquely competitive.

British education system produced clerks needed to run British Raj and today's India's education is producing digital clerks for rest of the world! There is nothing wrong in doing any kind of work (Basavanna told "Kayakave Kailasa") but best brains are getting diverted to do mundane work just because it pays more. Most of the IT work what we do is digital plumbing, masonry, painting and janitory work  not building new tools, techniques, architures or products which need lot of original thinking.

We need to strike a balance between our own heritage and language and english-globalization. We need to learn from both global and local experiences, don't have to always look out and far for every problems we face, there have been very ingenious, locally apt and sustainable solution used by our forefathers. If we are not proud of our language/heritage, we will lose that wisdom.

• thumb_up 47 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

Two-three decades back we were over-proud of our languages which is inherantly linked to our culture and heritage and now we are under-proud of the same, we are ashamed to talk in local languages!

The discussion here is on something else - nobody is ashamed of the local language, please!

English is not really a must for advancement in science or economics or any other fields, there are ample global evidences for the same, we can look at most european, east asian countries where people hardly talk english yet they have achieved progress in every field. In fact, being proud of their heritage has made them uniquely competitive.

All the same, they are all now beginning to give considerable importance to mastering the English language. Besides, with over 30 official languages in India, do you want to advocate advancement of technology and science in each of them? If yes, wouldn't it be the recipe for balkhanisation of the country?

British education system produced clerks needed to run British Raj and today's India's education is producing digital clerks for rest of the world! There is nothing wrong in doing any kind of work (Basavanna told "Kayakave Kailasa") but best brains are getting diverted to do mundane work just because it pays more. Most of the IT work what we do is digital plumbing, masonry, painting and janitory work not building new tools, techniques, architures or products which need lot of original thinking.

That's all old story - we have gone beyond all that now.

We need to strike a balance between our own heritage and language and english-globalization. We need to learn from both global and local experiences, don't have to always look out and far for every problems we face, there have been very ingenious, locally apt and sustainable solution used by our forefathers. If we are not proud of our language/heritage, we will lose that wisdom.

Exactly - proper balance, not blind chauvinism.

Muralidhar Rao
 

• thumb_up 44 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

 English is essential in the modern world for the simple reason that (1) Bulk of the world's modern scientific knowledge is in English (2) English works in many parts of the world as a Universal language.

So it is our duty to teach every single child in our country to have good command over English by the time he or she finishes basic schooling so that the child is able to access these knowledge and skills, if he or she has the drive and interest.

One question on which there seems to be a lot of confusion and debate is that of whether a small child should be educated in English or the local language at the Primary level.  A corollary to that question may be the question of when and how do we start English education and transition to it so that the child is prepared and not handicapped to be educated in English at higher levels of education.

We should, though proper scientific research, attempt to find a good answer to these questions and implement it in our schools. Maybe there could be a simple test to determine if the child understands better in English or the local language and then give the parents a choice/recommendation in deciding the stream of education?

The more important need is to look at the content of what is being taught and to teach children to logically think and analyze and express their thoughts.  Many of our curricula to this day stress regurgitation instead of understanding and explaining why learning something is useful.

Our local languages are rich in prose nd poetry and are also languages we speak at home.  As long as we continue to speak and use them, they will never die.  The challenge on that front is to keep the local language relevant. As long as the language evolves with the times and there are new, exciting creative works and children are taught to enjoy that, the language will bloom on its own. For example,  If vernacular language movies are focussed on a hero and heroine running around a tree without any other  modern subjects, the bright lights of hollywood will steal the audiences attention, right?

• thumb_up 42 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

Dear Murali Garu,

Great that you picked up this vital news item and have brought it to Praja forum for discussion. I am all for universalisation of English as  the primary link language with Hindi and / or mother tongue being a close second in terms of widening one's knowledge base.

Have you noticed how Namma CM is unable to answer extempore, questions put to him in English?  He gets answers written down in English and reads them out over the mike. Looks so pathetic that the head of a State Government cannot even put together one coherent sentence when asked a question by a scibe - does it not?

In this day and age of NDTV / Times Now etc which is watched by most middle and upper class urban citizens, ability to speak, write and read in English is almost a necessity.

Incidentally, defending primacy to English does in no way belittle mother tongue. Only those who are insecure of their mother tongue begin to think so.

My two penny worth

• thumb_up 32 Likes
• · login or register to post comments